Coming together
by car54
Summary: After there most recent battle, Ben and Gwen begin to realize the bond that is forming between them.
1. Chapter 1

Ben, as Diamond Head had knocked Dr. Animo down off his giant frog and Gwen had tied him in a mana ring. All of Animo's mutated creatures had either been disabled or had run away. As authorities arrived the two heroes walked away from the scene. "That sleep spell was a great move Gwen." She had taken most of the mutant animals out of the fight with it. Surprised by the complement Gwen hesitated looking for what he might be setting her up for but it seemed genuine. "Thanks Ben, you didn't do so bad yourself."

Ben had been really surprised at how well this battle had gone. Although, he had responded with his usual bravado when class had been dismissed so he and Gwen could deal with the oncoming threat, seeing how many mutated animals Animo had brought, of course to a place full of innocent bystanders, he wasn't Shure he could do this without a lot of other people getting hurt. Fortunately he and Gwen had function like a well-oiled machine. They had kept in sync like an elaborate dance, and they had danced circles around Amino and all of his mutants.

"It looks like class is out for the day." Gwen said as she looked back at the school, which had only suffered minor damage during the fight. "So, what do you want to do now?" Ben considered for a moment and said "Why don't we reward our self's for a job well done? I know a good pizza place, my treat." "Alright, just don't disappear into the game room and leave me at the table alone." Ben answered in a deliberately exaggerated tone. "I Promise!"

The two arrive at Sir Cheesealots pizza castle. The place of course was overdone with the medieval and fairy tale theme. The walls and counters were made to look like stone, the lights were made to look like torches and the entrance to the game room was a "stone" archway. Ben and Gwen looked at the menu and, without too much arguing settled on a peperoni and pineapple pizza. Then they sat down in the "Great dining hall."

"Well Ben", Gwen started, "I hate to admit it but those were some slick moves today.

"Thanks, and thanks for watching my back especially when Animo had that ray gun or whatever it was pointed at me.

"No problem, she responded.

"Yeah" he said, I'll tell you what is a problem though, the short duration on this thing." He said holding up his left wrist. Man, why wouldn't older me tell me how to break the code on this thing?

"Ben, you know you're better off if you earn that knowledge for yourself. Of course that wasn't his reason. He wouldn't tell you because he was a jerk, if you haven't forgotten. That's why you made me promise not to ever let you turn into him."

Yeah", Ben continued, "And that reminds me, I thought of something".

Gwen gave looked at him with mock astonishment "Be careful about that, you'll hurt yourself."

"Funny, Gwen, real funny. What I was about to say is that, as big of a jerk as he was, why didn't Gwendolyn leave him. She didn't have to stay in his shadow. She could have gone where she would be appreciated."

"Well", Gwen started but was interrupted by Ben.

"I'll tell you why, because she's you. I had a lot of time to think about this and I realized, that, in any universe you'll always stand with me and I guess I haven't given you much appreciation. So I just wanted to say, thanks Gwen."

Gwen sat looking at Ben with, first a stunned look that quickly softened, and said, with a little hint of a tear in one eye "my pleasure Ben, You can always count on me. But don't keep saying sweet things to me or I might have to kiss you…on the cheek I mean. "

Well, I wouldn't' complain. "He said. They both felt awkward and looked away from each other, anywhere but at each other. After a moment Gwen said "Uh, about the omnitrix timing out. Until you get that figured out you could, maybe learn some martial arts skills. We've got room for another student at my dojo.

Before Ben could reply an employee came out with their pizza. A young girl with long brown hair tied in a ponytail in the back and wearing a t-shirt that didn't leave much to the imagination. She bent over placing the pizza on the table saying "milord, milady, your pizza." Ben took notice he actually wasn't looking at the food and Gwen to her own surprise found it annoying, somehow Kia Green came to mind.

"Are you going to do tricks for her?"

"What?" Ben said.

"Are you going to let her tame you? She can use peperoni bites as rewards.

" Ben grinned "jealous Gwen?"

"N...No! She said Just stop making eyes at women when you are with another girl, it's rude."

Alright, gee I didn't know this was a date"

"It's not dweeb but it's still rude, let's just eat" As they each took a slice of pizza Ben said "I think the dojo idea is a good one, and I could ask Grandpa to teach me some plumber techniques. Would it be ok to go with you tomorrow?"

"Shure, I think you'll like the instructor. And, as much as I hate to admit it you do have a knack for fighting skills. But be ready for some bumps and bruises." As they continued with their pizza Gwen broke the silence with a question.

"So Ben, with all the trouble it's caused, if you could take the omnitrix off, would you?"

He thought for a moment then answered "No, I don't think I would. I mean I'm just learning how to use it and I have been able to do a lot of good with it. Besides, taking is off wouldn't stop Vilgax or Keven from coming after me, or you. Not that it makes any different, it'll never come off."

Gwen did her best wicked witch impression and added "As long as you're alive."

Ben chuckled, "You'd better not pull out an hour glass now."

Sneering she said "or you'll do what?

Ben gave her an evil grin and said "Remember Gwen, I know all of your tickle spots."

"You wouldn't dare" He started to get up from his seat and she quickly said "Ok, ok you would dare, I give. "

"A wise choice Gwen."

After pizza and a few games they walked back to Gwen's house, Ben's family was staying there while their house was being rebuilt. They walked in silence for a while and Gwen had time to think about all she and Ben had been through together. How many times they had saved each other's lives, how they had come to depend on each other and how much it hurt when one though that they would never see the other again in spite of all of the arguments'. She thought about Xenon, when the wild vines took her away. All she could think about was him, and then when she became aware again and he saw her. The look of sheer joy on his face, the tears in his eyes and the hug she got that said so much, it said "I'm never letting you go again". She was starting to feel very close to her cousin, maybe closer that she should, and she found herself wondering if Ben had the same thoughts. She knew him like no one else, except maybe Grandpa and she thought he does kind of act like he might. She wondered who she could talk to about this without getting herself and her cousin in trouble, maybe Ken. Yes she could count of him to listen and not judge. And, hopefully, help her sort some things out. She would call him soon. She was snapped out of her thoughts when Ben said "Gwen, after what happened today I think it would be a good Idea for us to start training together. It looks like the end of summer isn't the end of our hero work." The same thing had occurred to her

"Well we will have plenty of time since we'll be living together for a while, so yeah, lets plan on that."

Ben then continued "And after our place is finished we can take turns at each other's house on the weekends. He paused and continued, "and it would give us some time just have some fun."

"That sounds good to me," she said. As they walked Ben took his pack off and took something out, it was a chocolate bar, and he broke it in half and said to Gwen "here, have some partner." Gwen took the offered confection and then the significance of the gift occurred to her. She smiled ear to ear and, as they walked along she reached for his hand.


	2. Chapter 2

Ken was settling into his classes for this year quite well. He had already had a couple of quizzes and passed both with one hundred percent. He had reconnected with a few of his friends from his freshmen year and was looking forward to getting his driver's license.

Of course it had been quite a surprise a few weeks ago when he had received a call from his grandpa to tell him all about the summer with Gwen and Ben, ALL about it. Ken would rather have gone with them but he wanted to shore up his resume for college and so had opted for summer classes instead, he half expected Gwen to try to stow away in his luggage. That wouldn't have been so bad, he missed her.

Ken was all the more regretful of not going with them when he found out what had happened. Grandpa had told him about the omnitrix, the spell book and, well everything else. Big brother was supposed to watch out for little sister, he had been hundreds of miles away. But Grandpa had been there to take care of her and Ben. Taking care of Ben takes some finesse though, to help him without hurting his pride, pride that had been so badly wounded by school bullies. Ken wasn't Shure that grandpa understood that, neither did Gwen. Then there was this Vilgax. Kens younger cousin and sister had the most feared being in the galaxy as a personal nemesis. 'Yeah, you dropped the ball this time' Ken thought to himself.

Ken had always suspected that there was more to his grandfather's career as a plumber than he'd let on. But it was still mind-blowing when he found out just how much more. Grandpa had said with all that the trio had encountered this summer, he and some of the other plumbers were talking about how to protect earth now, and had all but invited Ken to join whatever defense structure they created. For now though, he had to keep his mind on his goal, pre-med.

He had just started his reading assignment when his phone rang.

"Hi Ken, its Gwen."

"Hi there cute stuff, it's good to hear from you. So what's up?"

"Uh, well, I…I kind of need to talk to you, about something personal."

"Okay, what's the problem?"

"It needs to stay just between us."

This was taking a serious turn and Ken was getting a little concerned about his baby sister. As always he would help her any way he could.

"Just between us." He reassured her.

There was a pause on the line. "It's about everything that's happened this Sumer."

"That's not a surprise, from what I've heard a lot has happened this summer. I'm sorry I wasn't there."

She knew that Ken would feel like he'd let her down by not being with them during all that they had been through. But they had been over this before, he can't always stand watch over her, or Ben for that matter. "It's alright Ken, you couldn't have known what was going to happen."

"Yeah, I know. But it sounds like there's something I can help you with now, so tell me what it is."

"Well, it's about Ben."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Ken said with a laugh.

Gwen chucked, "There's nothing wrong…It's just that…Alright, let me start from the beginning." Gwen told him about all that happened over the last few months. Of course she told him about all of the arguments and pranks. How at first neither one wanted to be on that trip together. But she also told him about all of the times she and Ben had fought together, saved each other's lives. She told him about all of the times that one had sacrificed themselves for the other. Like Ben surrendering himself for what would certainly have been death by dismemberment to save her. She told about them learning to work as a team and how Ben finally seemed to value her.

Gwen went on to talk about when Ben had gone missing. She later found out that he had been taken to fight as a gladiator on the megacruser. She had never admitted to anyone until now how worried she had been. That she had been afraid that she would never see him again. Gwen told Ken how angry she was at Kevin Leven for trying to lure Ben away from them, but even more, she was angry with him for making her mistrust Ben. She was angry with herself for that too.

She told him about Kia Green, and when they went to the future and some girl called out a flirtatious hello to Ben and she admitted to Ken that she had started to realize that she was jealous.

Then she spoke about when she allowed herself to be taken by the wild vines to save Ben, so he could save the world. Except, she had come to realize, it was not just to save the world but to save him. And she told her brother about how Ben had reacted when he saw her alive again. How he had run to her and hugged her so tightly, and she had seen the tears in his eyes.

Ken knew his sister well, he knew his cousin almost as well and he could see where this was going. Gwen continued, "What I guess I'm trying to say is…Ken I uh, well I think I'm starting to have feelings for Ben. I know it's weird, but, well how about a little brotherly advise. I don't know what I'm feeling, I don't know if I should feel it and I don't know what to do about it."

Ken could hear the confusion and desperation in her voice. He was glad that she felt safe confiding in him it made him proud that she trusted him that much, he wouldn't let her down. "Gwen, first relax. What you're talking about is not as unusual as you think. In fact if you do some research, you'll find several historical figures that were in such relationships. One if fact you wrote about as the person in history you most admire, Albert Einstein, he wife was related to him on both sides of his family."

"I know, I did some research I found scientist, political leaders and literary figures, but does that mean its okay for me? People will look down on me for it. Everyone in the family, except for you will be angry with me. And what if Ben doesn't feel the same way?"

"Well, baby sis, you're right that some people would, well, not approve but, if that's what you and Ben want, I don't think you should let it stop you. And by the way it wouldn't surprise me if Ben did feel the same way."

"You really think so? But what if he doesn't?"

"I can read him pretty well and I think there's a good chance he does, although, I don't know if he's admitted to himself yet. But if he does turn you down, you've always got me to lean on. You'll never know if you don't talk to him. But I have a question for you sis. Are you Shure that this is love and not just a crush? At the risk of sounding too poetic, love is worth the risk, a crush is not."

"Yeah, I've given it a lot of thought and tried as best as I could to look at myself honestly, and I think this is real?"

"Alright then, find a time to talk to him, if you can get him to be serious long enough, and see how it goes. Remember, if he shoots you down, I've got two shoulders for you to choose from."

"Thanks big brother, that means a lot, and thanks for talking."

"Any time Gwen, any time, talk to you soon."

"Bye Ken.

With that they hung up and Ken went back to his studies. He spent some time with organic chemistry and took the pre-test at the end of the chapter; he got 8 out of 10, good but not good enough. Ken looked up the pages for those answers, and then his phone rang.

"Hello."

Bens voice answered "uh hi Ken, uh listen can I talk to you about something…"


	3. Chapter 3

Ben and Gwen were up in Gwen's room doing some homework, with a little encouragement from Gwen, Ben actually was studying. He didn't like school but he didn't want to fail either. They had started with English and had since gone on to American History.

"Alright Ben, how about we quiz each other, I'll start... Why was the battle of Bunker Hill incorrectly named?"

"I know this one! The battle happened on Breeds hill but the smoke from all of the guns rose to Bunker Hill because it was taller, and when people looked they thought that's where the battle was being fought."

"Great! Now ask me one"

"Okay, hmm, alright, how did the colonial ship Bonhomme Richard get its name?"

"Please, that's easy…John Paul Jones gave it that name in honor of Benjamin Franklin."

"Right, you know I need a break. Let's go get some lunch."

Gwen realized she was getting a little hungry herself. "Alright, let's go down stairs and make some sandwiches."

The two got to the kitchen and started looking through the refrigerator to see what kind of sandwiches they could make. They found some lunch meat and sat down to eat. As they ate their food Gwen remarked, "You know I think you just might do okay on this test. I'm proud of you for sticking with your study."

Thanks, and thanks for helping me to stick with it. You know it doesn't suck so much when we study together."

It felt good to hear him say that. The last few weeks of going to school with Ben and having him living in her home had given her a lot of insight into him. She had begun to suspect that his dumb act was just that, an act. After all he could be pretty clever when he needed to be, like in battle. From watching him she had found that a lot of his problems stemmed from the school bullies. Ben was not a big kid and a mediocre athlete and that made him a target. If he had really done what she had come to think he could do academically, he would be labeled a nerd, or worse, he'd be the kid who raised the curve and he would have been that much more of a target. She felt kind of bad that she had fed his insecurities with comments about his height. So she focused on little boost like mentioning the homerun he had hit at the little league world series, or what a huge guy Ben 10K was.

Ben 10K… when she has finally seen him as a human, she was amazed at how tall and well-muscled he was, although she could have done without the beard and mustache. Gwen had a hard time taking her eyes off of him and was afraid that it was obvious. She wondered if Ben had the same problem with Gwendolyn.

That, of course, brought up another issue. Gwen had been thinking about her talk with Ken for a couple of weeks now and had talked to him since, and she was coming to some conclusions about her feelings. Now she needed to talk with Ben about it. She had told Ken how nervous she was about bringing this up with Ben and Ken had said that he didn't think she needed to be so nervous. He wouldn't tell her what insights made him say that but she hoped he was right. Gwen was just about to speak when Ben spoke first.

"Gwen, I need to talk to you about something."

"Okay, what?"

"Well, it's kind of personal and I don't want to have someone walk in on our conversation."

"Alright, well, tomorrow's Saturday why don't we tell everyone that I talked you into going shopping with me and we can find some time to talk then."

"Shopping, uh, ok I guess that's alright, then I know an out of the way place where we can have some privacy."

"Great, for now though, let's finish our homework."

The next day Ben and Gwen went shopping just as they said. At the Bellwood mall, Gwen bought two new dresses, one pair of slacks and some shoes. They had lunch at the food court and stopped in at the game shop so Ben could check out some new game titles.

After their shopping they left the mall and Gwen said. "Okay so you had a place where we can talk."

"Yeah, it's out in a little wooded area, just a short stinkfly ride away."

"Come on, stink fly, there's a reason why we call it that." Actually she loved flying with him but she didn't want to admit it.

"You can't fool me, I have a wide field of vision as stinkfly and I've seen your face when you're riding, so let's go."

"Okay. "She said, Ben transformed and Gwen got on. He took them to a small cave and transformed back into human form.

"This is really nice, how did you find it?"

"I like exploring, and I knew that we would need a private place to practice, we don't want spectators to know all of our moves."

"Makes sense, so what did you want to talk about?"

"Uh, well, I don't know how to start. I mean it's kind of personal and, well I'm afraid you might get really mad."

"I can't promise that I won't but I can promise that I'll hear you out before I react."

"Okay, it's just that, well, things have changed a lot for us since we started that road trip last summer"

She chuckled nervously, "Yeah a lot."

"Well, you know I kind of had to face what"…Ben was getting tongue tied; "let me start again. A few times you could have died, like when Vilgax held you hostage to get the omnitrix. And then I found out I could lose you and not even know about it. Like when Charmcaster switched bodies with you. I tried to tell myself that I just didn't want to try to explain everything to Uncle Frank and Aunt Lilly. But I had to face the fact that, that wasn't what I was really worried about."

Gwen was focused now on every word from Ben, she could only hope this might go where she would like it to go. "What were you really worried about then."

"I was laying there in my bunk in the rustbucket and things just caught up with me I guess. I thought about going on without you and the idea terrified me. Then seeing what kind of guy I could become, someone you might not want to hang around with, well I guess that's why it got to me that Gwendolyn didn't leave him, and It really made me look at you differently."

"Hey" she said with a grin, "you're stuck with me, like it or not.

"Yeah" he continued, "Well, then when the wild vines took you… when you let them take you to save me. It was too much, I didn't care about the universe I just wanted you back, but I had to do what I knew you would want and save everyone else. But Gwen, I don't know how to tell you what I felt when I saw you again. I've never felt that happy or relieved.

Gwen paid silent attention to Ben as he continued her hope growing as she listened.

"Well, Gwen. I gave a lot of thought to things but I was still really confused, so I called Ken a couple of weeks ago and talked to him about it."

He had spoken to Ken, about the same time she had, Maybe this is why Ken could be so reassuring when she talked to him latter, if he'd known that she would be rejected he would have tried to prepare her, but he'd only had encouraging words. "Well, how did that go?"

"Okay, here's the hard part. Gwen, I realized how much you mean to me and how deep my feelings run…and I'm afraid that you won't take it very well."

"I'll be open minded." She said softly.

"Gwen, my feelings for you go deeper than they should." Ben's eyes were tearing up as he braced for the reaction he feared. "Gwen, I've realized that I…well that I love you. And I don't mean like I love Ken or Aunt Lilly or grandpa. I mean I'm in love with you."

He felt like his heart was waiting to see if it was safe to beat again as he waited for Gwen to decide his fate. She just stood there for a minute, and then a tear started to well up in one eye. 'Now I've done it, I've hurt her, or made her incredibly angry.'

Then Gwen started to laugh, the relief felt so good. She saw the puzzled look on Bens face and she told him "I've been thinking a lot of the same things. In fact I had a talk with Ken about the same time you did. At first he wanted me to make sure that it wasn't just a crush, and when I spoke to him about a week later I knew for sure that it was the real thing. "Ben, "she said through tears and laughter. "I'm in love with you too."

The same hysterical relief started to come over Ben and the two closed the distance between them and embraced. They looked at each other and Ben said, "I guess there's one thing left to make it official."

"Oh, and what is that." She said playfully.

Their faces moved closer until their lips met. All of the anxiety, the confusion and fear were released. The kiss spoke more than words could, saying 'you're mine! I'm yours! I love you!

They separated but still held each other.

"This is too good, "Gwen said, I know this sounds corny, but, is this real, I mean it's not just some silly crush?"

"No, it's not just a crush, I know it's real."

"So" Gwen started, "where do we go from here, do we keep this between us for now? I mean, I don't know how everyone else will react. I know that they are expecting us to start dating soon but I don't think they are expecting us to start dating each other."

"Well, Ken already knows, and I guess he's okay with it. I say we kind of subtly test the waters with grandpa and if he's with us then maybe we can tell the others. For now, I think our training session went long, like till after sunset, let's just sit and watch it."

"I like that idea."

They sat on the ground, arms around each other. They spoke about all that had brought them to this point. And they spoke about their future.

"Gwen, just how different do you think our future will be from what we saw?"

"I guess we don't know, I mean we were warned about how 10K turned out and you promised me that you wouldn't be like that."

"Yeah, and you promised to help me, well, stay me."

"Yeah, I don't want to have to kidnap myself someday." She said with a laugh.

Then Ben decided to take a little risk. "I didn't look too closely but I didn't see rings on their fingers either, that's going to have to change."

She smiled, "Yeah that will have to change."

"I did notice you looking at Gwendolyn's earrings though and it gave me a great idea for a future gift, so during Grandpas 80th birthday party I asked her where she got them."

"What did she say?" Gwen was obviously interested in the answer.

"Her answer was…Well Ben, I don't know, you never told me."

"I guess you'll just have to keep your eyes open for them."

The sun was going down so, as much as she would like to stay where they were she said to Ben "I think we'd better get home or we're going to have some explaining to do, and I don't think we want to do that right now."

"You're right, but before we go I want to ask you out on our first date."

"Okay, what did you have in mind?"

"A movie and some diner, it won't be five star but it won't be Sir Cheesealots."

"Okay, but not some horror movie."

"No, that wouldn't be a good date movie. I was thinking of one called 'Split the Ice Apart'. It's about how a friendship between a man and a woman turns to love."

Gwen was surprised at bens thoughtful choice of movies. "Ben, I'm sorry to tell you this but I think you might be growing up."

"Will you love me anyway?"

"YES."

"Come on lets go." He said as he dialed in stink fly.

Ben, hit the omnitrix to make the change, Gwen got on and they went home, ready to face there greatest adventure yet…love.

**AN: do you want to "see" the movie Ben and Gwen are going to? Split the Ice Apart by AirbornAnomaly can be found on my favorites list. I enthusiastically recommend it.**

**AN2: This is dedicated to everyone in lounge 7. Hope you guys like it. **


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